Boyden, Iowa — Some round bales were destroyed in a fire on Friday, November 27, 2020, near Boyden.
According to Boyden Fire Chief Chris Starkenburg, about 11:20 a.m., the Boyden Fire Department was called to the report of a hay bale fire at 3771 330th Street, a mile south and two and a third west of Boyden.
The chief says the fire department saw lots of smoke as they approached the scene. He says the bales, which were mostly cornstalk bales, had been stacked very close to a Quonset building. He says they got the initial fire out with water and then pulled the bales away from the building and each other and doused them with water.
Starkenburg says no injuries were reported.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to be — according to the owner — someone had been lighting a burn pile with a torch and the torch wasn’t quite out.
Chief Starkenburg reports that the damage was limited to the bales. The building had steel sides, which Starkenburg says helped a lot.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene about an hour and a half.
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Also on Wednesday during the 11 a.m. hour, the Inwood Fire Department was called out to a ditch fire at 2233 Cherry Avenue, which is about a mile and a half northwest of Inwood.
Inwood Fire Chief Troy Van Beek says about 50 feet of ditch burned, which they put out with water.
He says the cause is officially undetermined, but he thinks it might have been a cigarette. The damage was limited to the ditch grass, and firefighters were there for about a half an hour.
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The previous evening — Thanksgiving night — the Primghar Fire Department was called out to what turned out to be a controlled burn in a trench pit. Primghar Fire Chief Gary Lansink reminds people if they are going to use fire to clean up debris or trash of any kind, they should call the Sheriff’s Office in their county to advise them of the burn.
